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Collocational overlap can guide metaphor interpretation

  • Anatol Stefanowitsch
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Aspects of Meaning Construction
This chapter is in the book Aspects of Meaning Construction

Abstract

In this chapter, I argue that information about properties that are metaphorically projected between semantic domains is accessible in the form of collocational overlap between lexical items representing these domains. This shows that the statistical properties of natural language can guide human language users (and potentially any language-processing device) in constructing metaphorical meaning.

Abstract

In this chapter, I argue that information about properties that are metaphorically projected between semantic domains is accessible in the form of collocational overlap between lexical items representing these domains. This shows that the statistical properties of natural language can guide human language users (and potentially any language-processing device) in constructing metaphorical meaning.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors ix
  4. Introduction. The construction of meaning in language 1
  5. Part I: Metonymy and metaphor
  6. Experiential tests of figurative meaning construction 19
  7. High-level metaphor and metonymy in meaning construction 33
  8. The role of metonymy in meaning construction at discourse level 51
  9. Chained metonymies in lexicon and grammar 77
  10. Arguing the case against coercion 99
  11. When Zidane is not simply Zidane, and Bill Gates is not just Bill Gates 125
  12. Collocational overlap can guide metaphor interpretation 143
  13. Part II: Mental spaces and conceptual blending
  14. Constructing the meanings of personal pronouns 171
  15. The construction of meaning in relative clauses 189
  16. Constraints on inferential constructions 207
  17. The construction of vagueness 225
  18. Communication or memory mismatch? 247
  19. Brutal Brits and persuasive Americans 265
  20. Index of authors 283
  21. Index of subjects 285
  22. Index of metonymies and metaphors 289
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.136.10ste

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors ix
  4. Introduction. The construction of meaning in language 1
  5. Part I: Metonymy and metaphor
  6. Experiential tests of figurative meaning construction 19
  7. High-level metaphor and metonymy in meaning construction 33
  8. The role of metonymy in meaning construction at discourse level 51
  9. Chained metonymies in lexicon and grammar 77
  10. Arguing the case against coercion 99
  11. When Zidane is not simply Zidane, and Bill Gates is not just Bill Gates 125
  12. Collocational overlap can guide metaphor interpretation 143
  13. Part II: Mental spaces and conceptual blending
  14. Constructing the meanings of personal pronouns 171
  15. The construction of meaning in relative clauses 189
  16. Constraints on inferential constructions 207
  17. The construction of vagueness 225
  18. Communication or memory mismatch? 247
  19. Brutal Brits and persuasive Americans 265
  20. Index of authors 283
  21. Index of subjects 285
  22. Index of metonymies and metaphors 289
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